Apple is killing the ‘Do Not Track’ setting in Safari

Apple has decided to remove the “Do Not Track” feature from its Safari web browser.

The Do Not Track setting in browsers was designed to tell web publishers and advertisers to not track a user’s online behaviour. The effort fizzled as websites largely ignored the setting. And now the mere presence of the option in browsers can help websites identify and therefore profile you through a process called fingerprinting, Apple concluded.

Beginning with iOS 12.2 and MacOS 10.14.4, Safari will no longer request that websites stop tracking you. Instead, Apple’s cross-site tracking prevention will act as the main method of blocking your personal information from being widely collected and distributed.

This setting should already be enabled by default but can be found under Safari’s privacy settings.

As part of Safari 12, Apple has upgraded its tracking prevention tools, changing the name to Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0. Additional protections against cross-site script inclusion attacks and cross-site framing have been added.